Sunday, March 29, 2020

CORONAVIRUS: Elective Surgery Including Infant Circumcision Being Delayed


On my Facebook news feed, I'm seeing many posts to the effect of "What is something good you think is coming out of this coronavirus pandemic?"

That's rather tough to answer.

Who wants to talk about "the positives" when this virus is infecting and killing thousands?

But I must say that, from an intactivist's perspective, there is a bit of a silver lining, if but, perhaps, a short-lived one.

Something else that caught my eye on my Facebook news feed is news that elective surgeries in the United States are being postponed if not canceled in order to preserve equipment such as masks, avoid patient infection, and ensure adequate medical personnel for responding to COVID-19 patients. Some new parents have been surprised to find that their providers currently aren’t performing circumcisions

As I've mentioned before, recently I haven't had the time to pay the attention I'd like to give the intactivist movement, and thus write more thought-out articles, so, at least for a while, my posts are going to be short.

Other organizations and groups meant to disseminate information regarding anatomically correct male genitalia and correct care of male babies with unaltered genitals in a circumcising culture such as the United States, have sprung up, making the task of raising awareness and educating the masses less daunting.

Eventually I'd like to sit down and update my page of organizations.

One such organization I'm seeing more and more of on Facebook is a group called "Your Whole Baby."

I found out about this coronavirus development because somebody posted a link to an article on their blog. The links in my blog were taken from them, so I'd like to give credit to them by linking to that article, accessible right here.

Times are tough, but at the very least, I think that less baby boys having part of their penises needlessly, at least for now, is a good thing.

Perhaps more parents will use this opportunity to think about something they would normally wouldn't give a second thought to.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Joseph, I think the message from US Surgeon General is quite clear, leaving no exeption for surgery for "cultural" reasons. These cultural reasons being most often "matching dad´s penis", "locker-room anxiety" and even, mostly in the black community, maternal fear that an uncircumcised boy will not receive oral sex.
    If 3000 circumcision are cancelled and postponed every day during a three months period everyone can estimate for himself the number of boys that could be spared. Hopefully parents will come to love their sons the way they are born and gynecologists could fully focus on women´s health, leaving male genitalia alone.
    Is this too good to be true? I hope that Intactivists are numerous enough to monitor OB-clinics in local hospitals and remind them of the message from the Surgeon General.
    And finally, even in Africa authorities are taking actions to stop spread of the Corona virus. Is it to optimistic to hope for an end of the US-funded VMMC-Project?

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